The Watts Riots (1965)

Site: The Watts neighborhood in south Los Angeles, Calif.

Then: On the fringe of the Watts neighborhood on Aug. 11, 1965, police officers pulled over a vehicle driven by Marquette Frye, 21. They suspected he was intoxicated. As Frye was being questioned, his brother summoned their mother from her nearby home. She immediately protested the rough manner in which her son was being detained. The mother began physically fighting with the officers as another cop hit Marquette Frye on the head with his nightstick. All three family members were taken into custody, according to the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute.

A crowd of more than 100 onlookers had formed to watch the incident. “Anger and rumors spread quickly through the black community (over the assault and arrests), and residents stoned cars and beat white people who entered the area,” says the King Institute’s Web site. A six-day riot flared throughout Watts, resulting in 34 deaths, more than 1,000 injuries, nearly 4,000 arrests and property destruction later estimated at $40 million.

Photo: Image from the Watts riots of August 1965.